Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

Three trends are currently driving the global electricity sector: decarbonization, decentralization and differentiation. Utilities are making significant contributions to mitigate carbon emissions, while a technology revolution is …

TEN years on from the first earth summit in Brazil, the biggest environmental road show on the planet is gearing up for a second round: the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

As many as 65,000 people are expected to converge on South Africa in the hope of finding solutions to arguably the toughest challenge of the 21st century: how to achieve sustained economic growth while still protecting the environment for generations to come.

The hordes of delegates attending the summit later this month (26 August-4 September) are naturally optimistic about their chances of achieving something significant; critics of the sunshine jamboree believe it will produce a lot of hot air – and little else.

Such conflicting reactions are not surprising, given the patchy progress in implementing the objectives set at Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

“The trends in population, poverty, transport and tourism, production and consumption are threatening in Europe,” says Françoise Belmont, deputy director of the regional office for Europe of the United Nations Environmental Programme. “There has been some progress in integrating environment and economic development. But, if you are looking at the whole picture, the situation is not better than ten years ago.”

The Rio summit brought the concept of ‘sustainable development’ into public consciousness through five documents, which were adopted by 178 governments.

The most detailed of them, Agenda 21, was a 300-page plan for sustainable development in the 21st century on global, national and local levels.

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Statement of Principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests further outlined the principles underpinning environment and development activities.

In addition, two conventions were adopted – the Convention on Bio-diversity and the better-known UN Convention on Climate Change. A decade on, however, sustainable development still looks much better on paper than in action. From UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to EU Commissioner Margot Wallström, as well as environment groups large and small, most people agree that progress has been much slower than anticipated.

“The biggest problem with Rio is that we haven’t been able to increase prosperity without increasing our reliance on natural resources,” says John Hontelez, head of the European Environmental Bureau, a Brussels-based NGO.

“Our consumption and production patterns are unsustainable.”

Another big failure since Rio, he says, is that both the EU and US have failed to fulfil their promises to the developing countries.

In Rio, world leaders committed to a non-binding resolution to devote 0.7% of their gross domestic product to assisting developing countries. Most countries have failed to reach this benchmark.

“There is now less aid than ten years ago,” Hontelez points out. But some progress has been achieved. Ratification by all EU members of the Kyoto Protocol in June is considered one of the major positive outcomes of Rio. The protocol sets a collective target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8% between 1990 and 2008-12. Under this umbrella, individual EU countries have taken on widely differing commitments through a ‘burden sharing’ arrangement.

Another change since Rio is that sustainable development has entered the mainstream terminology in European political discourse.

Back in 1997, the concept was introduced into the Amsterdam Treaty, making it one of the bloc’s chief objectives.

Last summer, during the summit in Göteborg, the EU adopted an official strategy for sustainable development.

“It’s still words on paper,” says Hontelez. “But the fact that sustainable development is part of the treaty gives us a better political framework.”

Making environmental resolutions and conventions legally binding is one of the challenges of sustainable development in action. Adopting a convention is easy.

But to ratify it, most EU countries have to adjust laws.

“It’s a long and complicated process,” says Belmont. “You can count them [ratified conventions] on your fingers.”

The Åarhus Convention is one of those rare success stories. Adopted in 1998, the convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental issues was ratified in October 2001.

Another reason it is considered a success is because it can be traced directly to one of the principles of the Rio Declaration. To date, 22 countries, – including three in the EU – Denmark, Italy and France – have ratified it.

Kofi Annan described it as “the most ambitious venture in the area of ‘environmental democracy’ so far undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations”.

Another area of progress since Rio, according to Belmont, has been seen in integration of environmental and economic development.

Global companies such as Electrolux, Volvo, General Electric and Shell have switched to a ‘triple bottom line’ strategy which rests on three pillars: economy, ecology and social issues.

Sweden’s Electrolux has almost trebled its production of green equipment from 5% of sales in 1997 to 14% last year.

Per Wadstein, Electrolux director of environmental affairs and sustainable development for Europe, said: “When designers think about new products, they look for environmentally friendly solutions. Companies have to have a good record on environment and social issues, otherwise they will be dead.”